Cardinals in the United States and elsewhere are raising concerns about just war and about the death and destruction caused by the ongoing conflict with Iran
By Tyler Arnold, Catholic News Agency/ EWTN News
[CNA/ EWTN News] – Several members of the Catholic hierarchy are expressing grave concerns about the American and Israeli military conflict with Iran, and at least one cardinal said the U.S. decision to launch the initial attacks fails to meet the criteria of a “just war” based on Catholic criteria.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered joint strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 amid inconclusive U.S.-Iranian negotiations related to uranium enrichment. In response, Iran launched strikes on U.S. bases and forces, Israel, and the Gulf states.
“At this present moment, the U.S. decision to go to war against Iran fails to meet the just war threshold for a morally legitimate war in at least three requirements,” Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., said in an interview with the archdiocesan Catholic Standard.
McElroy noted that the Church recognizes six conditions for a war to be just. The war must be waged by a proper authority, it must have a just cause, it must have the right intention, it must have a reasonable chance of success, it must be a last resort, and the damage caused by the war must not be more harmful than the evil it is meant to destroy.
“The criterion of just cause is not met because our country was not responding to an existing or imminent and objectively verifiable attack by Iran,” McElroy said.
Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. speaks at the University of Notre Dame Forum event on ‘Healing Our National Dialogue and Political Life’ on Oct. 17, 2025. (Photo Courtesy of Michael Caterina / University of Notre Dame – CNA/EWTN News)
Just prior to the attack, Omanʼs Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, a key mediator in the negotiations between the two countries, told CBS News that Iran was prepared to make major concessions, including a lower level of enrichment, a reduction of its enriched uranium stockpile, and inspections. On March 3, three days after the attack, Trump said “it was my opinion [Iran was] going to attack first.”
McElroy said the “right intention” criterion is also not met: “One of the most worrying elements of these first days of the war in Iran is that our goals and intentions are absolutely unclear, ranging from the destruction of Iran’s conventional and nuclear weapons potential to the overthrow of its regime to the establishment of a democratic government to unconditional surrender.”
At times, Trump has said he would potentially work with new Iranian leaders but has also urged the Iranian people to overthrow the government at other times. The previous supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed in a strike and has been replaced by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei. Iran has not shown any interest in returning to negotiations or making more concessions since the war began.
McElroy also said “it is far from clear that the benefits of this war will outweigh the harm which will be done.” He called the Middle East “the most unstable region in the world, and the most unpredictable.”
“Already the war has had unintended consequences,” McElroy said. “Iran’s morally despicable decision to target its neighbors in the region has spread the expanse of destruction. Lebanon may fall into civil war. The world’s oil supply is under great strain. The potential disintegration of Iran could well produce new and dangerous realities. And the possibility of immense casualties on all sides is immense.”
More cardinals echo concerns
Other cardinals have also publicly conveyed their concerns about the conflict, including Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Parolin told Vatican News that “this erosion of international law is truly worrying: justice has given way to force; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force.”
He said people in the Middle East, including Christians, have been “plunged into the horror of war, which brutally shatters human lives, brings destruction, and drags entire nations into spirals of violence with uncertain outcomes.”
“The Holy See prefers to recall the need to use all the instruments offered by diplomacy in order to resolve disputes among states,” Parolin said. “History has already taught us that only politics — through the hard work of negotiation and attention to balancing interests — can increase trust among peoples, promote development, and preserve peace.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, criticized the administration’s characterization of the war, especially an X post from the White House that showed videos of American strikes with the caption “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY” in all capitalized letters.
In a statement, Cupich said “more than 1,000 Iranian men, women and children lay dead after days of bombardment,” and added: “A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game — it’s sickening.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago speaks at a Georgetown University forum Oct. 30, 2025.(Photo by Madalaine Elhabbal, CNA/EWTN News)
“Hundreds of people are dead, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, including scores of children who made the fatal mistake of going to school that day,” he added. “Six U.S. soldiers have been killed. They are also dishonoured by that social media post. Hundreds of thousands displaced, and many millions more are terrified across the Middle East.”
Following the publication of the statement, a seventh member of the U.S. armed forces was confirmed dead.
Cupich accused the government of “treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment, as if it’s just another piece of content to be swiped through while we’re waiting in line at the grocery store.” He warned that “in the end, we lose our humanity when we are thrilled by the destructive power of our military.”
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, vice president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), raised similar concerns as Cupich, and commented on how technology changes how war is conducted.
“From distant command centers, military operators stare at screens where maps, radar signals, and algorithm-generated targets move like icons in a computer game,” he told Vatican News. “A cursor moves. A coordinate is selected. A click is made. And a missile is launched.”
When asked about who benefits from the war and who does not, David said “industries that manufacture weapons” benefit financially from the conflict.
“Certainly not the families who bury their dead,” David said. “Certainly not the workers who suddenly find themselves trapped in a war zone far from home. Certainly not the poor nations that will absorb the economic shock.”
Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, archbishop of Naples, wrote a critique of the war in poetic form in Italian, addressed to the “merchants of death.”
“I write to you from this trembling land,” he wrote. “It trembles under the footsteps of the poor, under the crying of children, under the silence of the innocent, under the fierce noise of the weapons you have built, sold, blessed by your cynicism.”
Battaglia asked those perpetuating the war to “stop,” to “convert,” and to listen to the words of Jesus Christ, as expressed in the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” Christ said in Matthew 5:9.
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